Construction work on a new $15-million clubhouse at Tanglewood Park for one of the Triad’s finest public golf facilities was given the go-ahead Dec. 21 from the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.
Samet Corp. of Greensboro will build a slightly smaller clubhouse on the site of the current clubhouse at the top of a hill overlooking the Park’s Championship and Reynolds courses. The new facility could be ready by fall 2015.
Tanglewood Park pro shop staffers confirmed to Triad Golf on Friday the new clubhouse would be built on the site of the current clubhouse, which will be demolished this spring. A temporary clubhouse, described as a “trailer” by the staffers, is planned a few hundred yards down the hill along the 18th fairway on Championship, on the west side of entrance road.
The project had been approved, but stalled, for the past few years, as the cost rose from $11 million. An amendment to move the cart storage away from the new clubhouse, to potentially save money, was rejected.
The aging split level clubhouse was built in preparation for the 1974 PGA Championship won by Lee Trevino on the Championship course. But the decor and furnishings throughout the facility have faded and much of the upper-level hospitality area and downstairs locker rooms go largely unused.
Plans for the new facility have included a warming kitchen for the snack bar, meeting space for 150 people, a pro shop and a wrap-around porch with a view of the Championship course.
The Vantage (also RJR) Championship, one of the biggest events on the Senior PGA (now Champions) Tour was played on Championship from 1987-2002 with winners including Gary Player, Hale Irwin and Trevino.
Greens fees and cart for Championship are $54 on weekdays and $64 on weekends. Prices at Reynolds are $34 and $40. On weekdays, players 55 and over pay $37 on Championship and $27 on Reynolds. The walking rate for players 17 and under is $24 on Championship and $16 on Reynolds.
“A modern clubhouse will create more opportunities to host tournaments, and those tourism events will put dollars in local cash registers and enhance the quality of Forsyth County as a place to visit,” Stephanie Brown, the president of Visit Winston-Salem, told commissioners before their approval vote. “Redeveloping this community asset will maintain the clubhouse as a place of gathering and celebration for the people who call Forsyth County home.”
The Championship course, one of the top public layouts in the Triad, was renovated with new bunkers and putting surfaces in 2018. The Reynolds course, is much tighter with an interesting, and often difficult, series of holes. Both were designed by Robert Trent Jones, one of golf’s most acclaimed course designers.
